Lenore Skenazy: Relax, let kids do it on their own

2:05 AM,
Sep. 18, 2013

Written by

Lenore Skenazy

School has begun, which means that at least one group of sixth-graders is about to undergo an enormous, transformative experience. Hint: It does not involve filling in any bubbles with a No. 2 pencil.

It involves getting out into the world. Every year, Joanna Drusin, an English teacher at a magnet school in Manhattan, has her students, age 11, do a "Free-Range Kids" project. That is, they can pick one thing that they think they are ready to do (that's legal!) that, for some reason, they haven't done till now.

Once they get their parents' permission - and some kids can't, which is why this project is ...